Killer Whale

Grade: D

My biggest takeaway from Killer Whale is that anyone versed in the filmography of star Virginia Gardner has a solid piece of spoiler-tagged trivia to submit to IMDb. 2022’s Fall had Gardner and her onscreen best friend trapped on top of a 2,000 foot cell phone tower. Killer Whale has Gardner and another onscreen best friend unable to leave a rock in the middle of a remote lagoon. The shoe is on the other foot for Gardner’s character in so many ways, when it comes to plot points, character traits, and her outcome. She is the other person in the Fall template.

When we first meet Maddie (Gardner), she is a waitress, closing up for the night by herself. Her boyfriend Chad (Isaac Crawley) shows up to surprise her, and gives her a hard time for never locking the back door, which is how he got in. Neither did he, because in comes a robber with a shotgun. They are able to fend him off, but a couple of shots fired at close range leave Maddie in need of hearing aids. The unmasked robber flees, Chad and Maddie celebrate being ok in the parking lot – when the man comes back and slams into Chad with his truck, sending him flying, Meet Joe Black style. It’s one of several instances where characters are oblivious to things approaching them. At least Maddie has an excuse.

A year later, Maddie’s best friend Trish (Mel Jarnson) surprises Maddie with a luxury vacation to Thailand. They befriend a cute guy named Josh (Mitchell Hope – Ben from the Descendants series). With Maddie being an orca enthusiast, the three of them sneak into a Sea World like attraction after hours to get a glimpse of Ceto, who has been in captivity for 20 years. They find that Ceto has “taken care of” an employee in the now red tank. That didn’t raise enough red flags to prevent them from going on a jet ski excursion the next day. One thing leads to another, the jet ski and Josh are no longer in the picture, and Maddie and Trish can’t leave this rock in the middle of oceanic nowhere because Ceto is there (long story). 

Once this has been established, you can feel the movie riffing, trying to stretch itself out, and running out of ideas. A situation like this tends to bring out the truth between the two stranded people. Just like in Fall, there’s a plot twist – one of those “I might as well tell you this” moments. The actresses don’t play the weight of everything they’ve witnessed and been through. I questioned how much was filmed on location; they often looked as comfortable as can be on what I’m imagining is a soundstage with water that feels like a bath. Unsubtle foreshadowing has unique props introduced early on, so they can come into play later. Maddie plays the cello, and aspires to get into it professionally, in a through-line that is beaten into our heads with fantasy montages of her playing it. They would be too cheesy for an Enya or Yanni music video. For a movie about a killer whale, it is very lean on violence and tension.

I have made it a tradition to watch all of Virginia Gardner’s movies since Fall. She has so much promise and potential, yet I tend to use the word “despite” in my reviews of a Gardner film, even if I like it. She has somehow made it succeed enough (Beautiful Disaster, See You on Venus, F*** Marry Kill), and other times not even she could save it (Beautiful Wedding, A Breed Apart, and now Killer Whale). I hold out hope, and will keep checking back, to see if she has broken away from YA romance novel adaptations or goofy cheap survival thrillers, and launched into the career she deserves.

Grade: D